Last weekend's This American Life was both exquisitely reported and one of the most infuriating stories I've heard in a while. Highly recommended if you want to be really mad about something. This is one of those rare perfect examples of the tyranny of the majority.

"A Not-So-Simple Majority" is the episode title. Basically a group of hasidic jews, who don't use the public school system, take over a school board and systematically destroy the school district from the inside out. It gets really bad, and the story does not have a happy ending. They even manage to close public schools and buy them for their own use.

It takes a special kind of evil to do what they did (and are still doing) to this community, including, of course, using absurd claims of anti-semitism to shut people up. I am still infuriated as I'm writing this.

Most chilling line from the episode: "We have all the power, why would we negotiate?"

We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

On today's You Made It Weird, Harris Wittels ( writer/producer of 'Parks and Rec' ) returned to the show and talked about his opiate addiction over the past year that started to spiral out of control after he broke up with his girlfriend from a strict Scientologist family. It's a really interesting story and I loved how transparent he was in this conversation, he doesn't hold a single thing back about what he went through. He didn't make any claims of doing a public service, but I think it's really important for celebrities to speak honestly about their addictions because it kills so many of them each year. Pete Holmes is very supportive and nonjudgmental, and it still turned out to be a pretty funny episode! The best part is his journey leading up to hitting rock bottom when he's trying to score. I don't want to get into details because it was such a fascinating listen and would be a great introduction to the show for anyone who hasn't given it a try.

I've been inexplicably binging the Rotten Tomatoes podcast. It's very good though. They're natural podcasters, and it's fun. Covers new releases in movies and TV and how things are landing on the Tomatometer, that sort of thing.

They also have TV recap episodes. Their recaps (reviews, really) of Game of Thrones and The Leftovers were great to listen to.

i will never be able to thank reelist enough for making me aware of the dollop.its definitely my favorite podcast. maybe one of my favorite things ever.i would like to draw attention to two recent ones that i find CRAZILY relevant to current tv and movies.

one would be Pulgasari, in which gareth and dave actually switch roles, but gareth discusses these jong il and jong un type guys relationship and connectedness with movies. this podcast made me want to watch the interview again, and that's very impressive. the cinema background in this is amazing.

the other would be lobster boy.they NEVER reference the current season of AHS in it, but the history of freakshows they discuss in it is absolutely fascinating and i recommend it to everyone that likes AHS as required listening.

so basically the dollop made the interview and the current season of AHS good. just with a podcast.

i will never be able to thank reelist enough for making me aware of the dollop.its definitely my favorite podcast. maybe one of my favorite things ever.

Glad to hear it! Although I'm not too familiar with Dave Anthony's stand up, he has to be one of my favorite comedic minds out there. I didn't know a thing about him until I started listening to 'Walking The Room', and since I've gone through their whole catalog twice and would gladly do a third, I have to name that as my #1. That podcast started off from a place of complete despair, Dave was a stay at home Dad with no job and Greg Behrendt's talk show had just been canceled. Listening to it, you feel like you're eavesdropping on a couple of 7th graders who just learned how to curse, it's so ridiculously immature. I've never heard people throw such harsh words at each other and still be able to remain friends, outside of the shoutbox.

That show was retired over the summer so Dave could focus his energy on 'The Dollop'. He says that he was just sick of talking about his personal life so much, and now that he did have writing jobs and standup gigs there just wasn't any of that bitterness left in him. 'The Dollop' isn't a show you can leave on in the background while doing other things, it requires your attention and actually rewards it. There's so much information coming at you in this linear narrative format that it's easy to lose track of where you are in the story, which has happened to me probably everytime I've listened to it. The one thing that will come out of left field to any first time listener is Dave's uncontrollable wheeze of a laugh. Marc Maron described it as "the sound of a dead person exhaling his last breath."

Two very accessible episodes that are shorter in length ( called "Smollops" ) are Michael Malloy and The Leatherman. Both are these Hilariously tragic tales of outcasts in society around the late 1880's who just keep trudging along no matter what shit is flung their way. You will find many details in there too funny to be true, and that's what makes The Dollop great!

whoa ho! holy crap! the most recent dollop has a really great story i've never heard before about the guy who wrote 'The Hitcher' 'Body Parts' and 'Near Dark'. its pretty short and a must listen.also: reelist, why are they bothering to call them smollops when some of the recent regular ones have been less than 40 minutes?

On today's You Made It Weird, Harris Wittels ( writer/producer of 'Parks and Rec' ) returned to the show and talked about his opiate addiction over the past year that started to spiral out of control after he broke up with his girlfriend from a strict Scientologist family. It's a really interesting story and I loved how transparent he was in this conversation, he doesn't hold a single thing back about what he went through. He didn't make any claims of doing a public service, but I think it's really important for celebrities to speak honestly about their addictions because it kills so many of them each year. Pete Holmes is very supportive and nonjudgmental, and it still turned out to be a pretty funny episode! The best part is his journey leading up to hitting rock bottom when he's trying to score. I don't want to get into details because it was such a fascinating listen and would be a great introduction to the show for anyone who hasn't given it a try.

I listened to that episode on your recommendation, back when you posted. It was very interesting...but now this.

So awful. And SO weird considering I randomly chose to listen to an episode of CBB he did about an hour before the news broke. AND I saw Pete Holmes at a cafe yesterday. Harris was hilarious and had huge potential, on top of all the amazing work he had already turned out. Parks & Rec is one of my favorites and now next week's finale is gonna have an extra layer of sadness to it.

So awful. And SO weird considering I randomly chose to listen to an episode of CBB he did about an hour before the news broke

Yeah, my brother was telling me about seeing his band "Don't Stop Or We'll Die" at the UCB in L.A. and I recommended him that episode like literally an hour before we heard the news...cosmic

On that 'You Made It Weird' he seems really clear headed and cognizant of the bad places drugs took him while at the same time you can sense an itching in him to go back. So, it is a huge shock, but I'm not surprised at all.

Was Pete Holmes being incredibly loud in the cafe? I imagine you hearing his obnoxious laugh before you saw him. Next time, tell him Reelist said whats up. Big fan